


daddy

by colonelborkmundus



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Daddy Issues, Gen, TEAM SHIVA, brought to you by my own asian guilt, character introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 10:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colonelborkmundus/pseuds/colonelborkmundus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Guilt is the beast she can’t quite shake off her back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	daddy

**Author's Note:**

> For MissMaggie's prompt:
> 
> "Something Yuffie-centric, please. I've got a soft spot for Yuffie/Reno, but it's not necessary to have it be shippy. Yuffie's a brat, spoiled, a thief, whatever you name it. But she's got a heart under all those teenage emotions, and I'd love to see it explored. What's her relationship with her parent(s) like (Godo/deceased mother)? Maybe she wants to do something nice for Tifa/Marlene/Cloud/Vincent and it doesn't end well? Why'd she cry for Aerith, who'd she just met? Character introspection on Yuffie would be wonderful."
> 
> Sorry I accidentally barfed Asian guilt/daddy issues all over your prompt.

Complicated father issues are complicated, say that one ten times fast. They’re daddy issues but not quite daddy issues; an identity crisis of a sorts threatening to spiral out of control. She lies awake most nights, whether it be in a sleeping bag or propped up uncomfortably in some trees for cover or the rare moment on the futon she grew up with, head spinning with thoughts and things all amounting to _who the fuck am I? am I crazy?_

Princess, warrior-ninja,  White Rose, brat, ungrateful twit, poor excuse for a daughter, no no no you will never be anything like your mother, Da Chao’s many faces frown upon you and He of the Deep Waters turns His back on you, _Wutai will never be the same again._

She is her own punching bag. It’ll take years of therapy and tea and lots of bad whiskey to chuck the heavy immortal guilt she carries on her shoulders; she bleeds misplaced nonsensical guilt and a similarly misplaced sense of honor for as long as godsdamn lives with Wutain blood running through her veins. She could save the world ten times over, push Hojo off a cliff, punch Sephiroth and all the Deepground fuckery that came along after him in the fucking throat, bring all the materia and glory back to the Golden City, climb the steps of the Pagoda over and over again - but she will never be worthy.

 

 

 

Guilt is the beast she can’t quite shake off her back.

 

 

 

Complicated father issues, how about them issues? Godo is old: it shows in his bones, in his walk, in the lines in his face. Someday he will die. He will die, and she will become Empress. And then what? Does the beast disappear? Does it linger forever? Will his ghost haunt her along with the ghosts of the ancestors she tries to honor, the ghost of the mother she can't remember? Or will there be nothingness?

She never knows where she stands with him. One moment, it’s all fun and games as they share a pleasant moment over tea; in the next moment, she’s once again the world’s greatest disappointment. She’s very good at being a disappointment. _Who the fuck am I?_ A royal disappointment, pun intended, that’s what, ah ha ha ha - no. She is Yuffie, she is her own person, fucking fuck that noise.

She breaks free, strong sense of self evident in her footsteps yet again. Then the cycle repeats itself, the cycle of guilt and disappointment and the feelings of being a bit of a failure.

 

 

 

For all that she hates him, she loves him deeply.  _Someday he will die_. And then she will be left alone with an even heavier weight on her tiny shoulders. Someday he will die, and maybe the guilt and shame will be all that she has left. Or maybe she'll kick herself for not making up for lost time.

 

 

 

Call it cultural trappings. Call it daddy issues. Call it the beast she can’t quite shake off her back. It’s all the same in the end.

 


End file.
